


Bruised, Broken, Bleeding

by TwinkieMonsterTallah



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alliterative Bullshit, Angry smol, Avvar, Frostback Basin, Get Wreckt Bull, Hakkonites, I think I described gore pretty well if that squicks you out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 19:25:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15758136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinkieMonsterTallah/pseuds/TwinkieMonsterTallah
Summary: Aiden spun around just in time to see the head of the man’s massive hammer brutally slam into Bull’s chest, crushing his armor like paper and throwing the qunari back





	Bruised, Broken, Bleeding

The low chanting of the Hakkonites and their ridiculously glowing weapons made them easy to find and easy to sneak up on. 

Both in stealth, Aiden and Cole snuck around the back of the group, creeping up behind the archers. Taking them out first would make the fight easier without the worry of being picked off by an arrow. 

In unison, the two rogues struck at the backs of the archers. They both shouted, obviously drawing attention from the other three Avvar. 

The thick hide armor the Avvar wore protected the archers from most of the damage, but while Aiden and Cole pursued the archers to finish them, Iron Bull and Dorian attacked. Dorian conjured a static cage to trap the remaining three Avvar and keep them from interfering with the rogues, and once it burned out, Bull swung his massive sword and caught the bruiser across the middle, forcing his attention to him. 

Once the archers dropped, the rogues turned to the Hakkonite warriors and attacked. Cole took the one with the shield. As an assassin, he was an expert at dodging around and striking at precise points, so a shield was nothing to him. 

This left Aiden the one using only a sword. The woman gave Aiden a feral grin, clearly confident in her victory. With a grin of his own, Aiden easily parried her attack. With Dorian’s help and poisoned blades, the swordswoman was quickly dispatched. 

With only one of the group left, Aiden spun around just in time to see the head of the man’s massive hammer brutally slam into Bull’s chest, crushing his armor like paper and throwing the qunari back. Bull tried to push himself back up, but fell once more, coughing a huge gout of blood to the forest floor. 

The elf heard his blood rushing in his ears and dim shouting. Time slowed down, leaving Aiden thinking of a conversation he had overheard a year ago between Bull and Cassandra.; “One good shot, and all that cleavage gets shoved into the sternum. Real messy.” 

All he could focus on was the crimson streaks on his love’s chin, the shattered armor piercing his chest. Bull didn’t have cleavage, but it was a mess. There was a yell, screaming in pain. He thought it was Bull, but he hadn’t moved. 

Aiden didn’t know when he moved. He was stabbing at the bruiser, daggers doing little against thick armor. Someone was crying. Bull. It had to be Bull. Something was in his eyes, keeping him from seeing clearly. The Hakkonite reared back, raising his arms. Surrender? It wouldn’t help him. Nothing would help him now. 

Nothing could help him now. 

Time caught back up to him when an arm around his waist yanked him back, throwing him to the ground. Someone dropped over him, narrowly avoiding being struck by the giant hammer as it was swung in a wide circle. 

Cole leapt to his feet to defend Dorian, shouting over his shoulder, “Help The Iron Bull!” 

Aiden slowly rose to his feet. Flashing lightning and dancing blades distracted the bruiser, leaving him free to stumble to Bull’s side and collapse to his knees next to him. He needed to get the armor off, see the damage. He used a dagger to cut the straps, lifting the chest plate away and revealing the mess of blood and bone. 

For a terrible moment, Aiden thought Bull was dead, but a slow, wheezing breath made the elf sob with relief. Trembling fingers fumbled to find a healing potion on his belt, nearly dropping the bottle as he opened it. 

Bull groaned when Aiden lifted his head. His eyelid twitched, but didn’t open. Aiden took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and think straight. Slowly, he poured the potion into the qunari’s mouth, stopping when Bull coughed and wheezed in agony. 

Despite the situation, Aiden felt the corners of his lips twitching to smile as he recalled a day in the Fallow Mire nearly identical to this; dripping a potion into an unconscious friend’s mouth while worrying about death. 

By the time Aiden had given Bull the entire potion, the bruiser was dead and the other two had joined them. Dorian remained tensely silent, but Cole softly said, “Bruised, broken, bleeding, the taste of metal, warm and wet. Too much like Seheron.” 

“Maybe not the time for that.” Dorian shushed him. 

The potion began its work, healing the injury to nothing more than a massive bruise within moments. Bull coughed as his lungs were repaired, gasping for air as his eye shot open. 

“Well, that’s a relief.” Dorian tried to make his tone light and jovial, but the Altus really did a terrible job at hiding said relief in his voice. 

“How do you feel?” Aiden asked, wiping tears he hadn’t realized were flowing. 

“Like I’ve just been used as a dragon’s punching bag.” Bull answered. He pushed himself to sit up, and the only thing that kept him from standing was Aiden's hand on his arm. “Did I miss everything?” 

Aiden nodded. “Yeah, they killed the Avvar without you.” He also tried to force his voice to be lighthearted. “You were the noble woman with the fancy armor.” 

“Ha!” Bull barked a short laugh, wincing when the bruise that remained ached to protest any and all movement. “You remembered!” 

“Every word, every glance, every touch, all remembered, stored and saved for when he’s sad.” Cole piped up and earned a raised eyebrow from Dorian. 

Standing and holding a hand out to Bull, Aiden asked, “How about we go back to camp? Bull should rest after… he needs to rest.” 

“The nearest camp is in a tree.” Dorian reminded the group. “He’s going to complain the whole way up.” 

“I’ve had worse than this and done harder exercises than stairs.” Bull grunted in amusement. “I’ll even race you.” 

“On those narrow death-traps the Inquisition excuses to be steps? No thank you.” 

************************ 

That night, Aiden was rubbing horn balm onto Bull’s horns for him when the qunari spoke up. 

“Are you alright Kadan?” 

The question surprised him, but he nodded. “I’m fine last I checked; I wasn’t hit.” 

“I mean after what happened to me today. You looked terrible, and Cole’s narration gave me a picture of how you reacted.” Bull explained his reason for asking. “Are you alright?” 

Aiden set the jar down and wiped his hands on his pants, leaving clear streaks. “I’ve never seen you go down like that.” His voice was almost hard to hear, even in the near-silence of the camp at night. 

“I’ve gone down plenty of times before! Remember when that big red bastard in Haven got me? You had to leave the trebuchet to get me up? I almost lost my other eye, remember?” 

Bull knew exactly what Aiden meant by his words though, and he knew his attempt at easing the elf’s troubled mind was doomed to failure even before he opened his mouth. Sure enough, Aiden was shaking his head. 

“This was different from seeing you with your back or something cut open. Those injuries didn’t crush you like a Summerday paper lantern.” 

“But my reaction was the same. It’s not like coughing up blood is a new thing for me.” 

They both knew the real problem Aiden was having, but both were waiting for the other to say it first. 

Aiden was afraid. A human had been large and strong enough to almost kill Bull. When a demon or a giant almost killed Bull, it was almost expected; they were monsters. The Avvar were human though, and while the Red Templars had been able to seriously hurt Bull, the Avvar didn’t have anything enhancing their strength or size. Aiden was afraid of the Hakkonites. 

“I know that you’re an adult, and you can handle yourself, and you’ve had worse and walked away laughing, but I was worried.” Aiden sighed. “Just… be more careful.”  
The clichéd plea sounded pitiful even to himself, but Bull was reaching up to ruffle his hair anyway. 

“I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was about 0.1% co-written with Alyarayne. She came up with Cole's "Bruised etc." line and thus the title. If you guys haven't read her stuff go check her out: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyaRayne


End file.
